The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has impacted citizens and local governments across the US. It has forced local and state governments to find new ways to accept and issue permits, communicate with its citizens and builders, and remain operational.
Check out Cloudpermit’s 5 ways e-permitting offers a solution for a cost-effective software with contactless service, stronger communication, faster permit issuance, and to reduce stress on IT and building departments during COVID-19.
1. COST-EFFECTIVE: E-permitting saves money on printing and travel costs, and in 2021, building departments could implement it for free.
While our software is always cost-effective, it can now be supported by US Federal Funding to help your team and citizens thrive. By accepting support now to adopt a digital solution, you can help your local government building department and citizens now, and in the future.
The US Federal Government is offering support to governments who want to switch to e-permitting to adopt safer and more efficient ways of working during the ongoing pandemic.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, with the Coronavirus Relief Fund, has been extended until the end of 2021. The Act supports governments at the state, local, and tribal levels during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
This $150 billion in funding helps local government building departments work remotely and encourage social distancing with e-permitting software.
Funding can be applied to expenses directly incurred from COVID-19, that were not budgeted as of March 27, 2020, and was incurred from March 1, 2020, to the end of this year, December 31, 2021. Learn more here.
Schedule a demo with us to learn more about how to apply and advice on how to use funds to help your community during COVID-19.
2. CONTACTLESS SERVICE: E-permitting enables building departments to offer contactless service to its citizens.
Building departments can perform all building permit processes online. Citizens and builders do not need to travel to the local government office as they can perform all tasks online in a remote, collaborative, and paperless way.
This means building departments that use e-permitting do not need to rely on physical drop boxes to accept building permit applications during office closures or when trying to encourage physical distancing, and can instead, offer contactless service.
Learn more about contactless service here.
3. STRONGER COMMUNICATION: E-permitting creates accountable, easy-to-follow, and seamless communication between all parties.
Local governments can provide its citizens with stronger communication as e-permitting moves communication online – no more in-person visits at the office, phone calls, spreadsheets, or emails.
Cloudpermit has an online portal for all parties involved in building permit processes to talk with each other with time-stamped messages. This keeps all parties accountable, makes it easier to follow, and easier to involve multiple people simultaneously – it also brings all parties together.
Citizens also receive automatic email notifications about permit status which helps reduce back-and-forth communication, freeing up valuable staff time.
Learn more about how online communication helps here.
4. SPEED UP PERMIT ISSUANCE: Since everything moves online with e-permitting, building departments can issue building permits faster.
Building permit issuance with paper processes is slow during COVID-19– it requires emails, phone calls, physical drop boxes, paper exchanges, and sometimes, in-person contact at the local government office.
Cloudpermit speeds up permit issuance by at least 50% by streamlining processes. Learn more about how we help streamline processes here, and consider how your local government could benefit from faster permit issuance.
5. REDUCE STRESS: E-permitting relieves stress on IT and building departments during the pandemic.
IT and building departments during COVID-19 have been spread thin from needing to find alternative ways to process building permit applications, inspections, and communicate digitally. E-permitting helps reduce this stress, and with Cloudpermit, eliminate it.
Since the software is cloud-based, automatically updates, has no installations, and is user-friendly, IT departments do not need to spend its resources on using the software.
Cloudpermit is easy-to-use for all parties involved in building permit processes – even citizens who are not technologically-savvy. Citizens and local government building departments have access to essentially the same user interface so governments can help its citizens easily if they do run into any issues. We’re committed to software that is helpful, intuitive, and user-friendly.
Learn more about our software features here.
